Compartmentation surveys · Infra Fire Safety Ltd
Compartmentation surveys.
Understand the barriers.
Surveys of fire-resisting walls, floors and their interfaces for building owners, managing agents and project teams. Based in Preston, we work across the North West and throughout the UK.
Understand the condition of your building’s compartmentation.
Compartmentation helps limit the spread of fire and smoke through a building. Changes to layouts, new services and earlier building work can introduce defects that are difficult to understand from drawings alone.
Our surveys examine the accessible construction against the available fire strategy and records. We identify observed defects, explain the limitations of the survey and set out where further investigation is needed.
What the survey can cover
- Compartment walls and floors: the condition and apparent continuity of the fire-resisting construction within the agreed survey areas.
- Service penetrations: accessible openings for cables, pipes and ducts, including the condition and evidence available for fire-stopping arrangements.
- Junctions and concealed spaces: interfaces, risers and ceiling or roof voids where access has been agreed.
- Recording findings: photographs and location references so that defects and follow-up actions can be identified by the building team.
Agree the access before the inspection.
The brief establishes the areas to be surveyed and whether the work is visual or requires opening up. Concealed construction cannot be confirmed solely from its surface appearance. Any opening-up work, access equipment and making good are agreed as part of the scope.
A survey records the evidence available at the time of inspection. Where a construction detail or product cannot be established, the report identifies the information or further investigation needed.
Part of a wider fire safety picture
A compartmentation survey may follow a recommendation in a fire risk assessment, support refurbishment or help address gaps in existing building records. Fire door surveys can be scoped alongside it where doors form part of the compartment boundaries.
We welcome enquiries across Preston, Lancashire and the North West, with national projects considered around the site and access requirements.
Common questions
Does a compartmentation survey include opening up?
The extent of inspection is agreed before work starts. A visual survey and an intrusive survey provide different levels of evidence; any opening up and making good need to be included in the agreed arrangements.
Can the survey follow an existing fire risk assessment?
Yes. Send the assessment and the relevant recommendation, together with available plans. This helps define the survey areas and the questions the work needs to answer.